At least the 318cu in V8 was the correct spec, though the original engine had long since departed in favour of a similar sized block from a Barracuda, and none of the gauges had been wired up. The rear quarter had been dented where someone had reversed it into a wall and the interior was little better, showing its age and the seats were falling apart too. “I offered £200 less than the asking price and it was a very long week before I could pick it up.”Īlthough the Fury was driveable and generally sound, there was a plethora of holes in the bodywork, the chrome was missing, and the side markers had been removed and filled. “My brother then showed me an advert with a small black and white photo soon after I got back from holiday which read ‘Plymouth, 60s styling, bring spare underpants.’ It was exactly what I was looking for.” Ed took a trip over to Halifax in West Yorkshire with his best mate Alex Clarke to view the ‘71 Sport Fury and after a quick test drive, he knew this was the car for him. “I couldn’t find anything that fitted the bill in there, looked okay or fitted my modest budget,” Ed laughs. The search began and even though there were more Seventies American cars on our roads back then, don’t forget this was pre-internet days so the Exchange & Mart soon became part of Ed’s staple diet.
#PLYMOUTH FURY TV#
I decided I had to buy something similar and keep it for a year or two, just to get the idea out of my system.” Ed wasn’t too fussed about which particular make or model, it just had to be a huge Seventies slab, like you saw in all the TV shows and films. “I did have two friends who drove Yanks though, one had an Oldsmobile Cutlass and the other owned a ’74 Impala.”Įd’s opinion of American cars would soon change, however, when one day after a car meet, Dave, who owned the Impala, suggested Ed drive it back, “It was such fun to drive and seeing people’s reactions as you went past soon became very addictive. “The XJ was one of my favourite cars of all time and I had little interest in American cars, even though there were plenty of them on the road in the UK at the time,” Ed recalls.
#PLYMOUTH FURY DRIVERS#
For those who can’t recall the late Eighties, insurance was still relatively cheap, even for younger drivers to insure large powerful cars, so a 20-something smoking around in an XJ6 certainly wasn’t out of the ordinary. “YOU CAN’T MISTAKE THE BURLY AND IMPOSING LOOKS OF THE ’71 PLYMOUTH SPORT FURY, WITH ITS ROUNDED FUSELAGE STYLING AND HIDDEN HEADLAMPS…”īack in 1988, Ed was driving around in his second car, a Jaguar XJ6 which had replaced a Mk II Escort. We should point out this was back in 1988, so you could say those initial plans disappeared some time ago, probably while Jive Bunny was still in the charts. In fact, when he first bought it, he only really intended to keep it a year or so, spending as little money on it as possible to keep it running. Ed Jackson was in no particular rush to complete his stunning ’71 Plymouth Fury Sport.
Everyone wants to work at a pace they’re happy with − after all, a full-time job and everyday life often results in that stash of parts and a stripped shell filling your garage for longer than was intended and all too soon the summer sun has begun to disappear. When we think of ongoing projects, a timespan of six months to a few years seems quite typical. Are you one of those Classic American readers that change their cars as often as their underpants? Or is it a case of ‘until death us do part’? That’s certainly the case with Ed Jackson, who’s had this eye-catching Plymouth for more than 30 years and made the car all his own! Words and photography: Jon Cass.
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